Filmmaker Richard LaGravenese has worked in modes both popular (The Fisher King) and indie (Living Out Loud). Sometimes, he even manages to combine the two tendencies. (As a screenwriter, LaGravenese made the most purple-prosed romance novel of the 1990s, The Bridges of Madison County, into a rather restrained and lovely film.)

[Hilary Swank] is Holly Kennedy, first seen feuding adorably with her husband Gerry, played by [Gerard Butler], who is just coming off the Spartan epic 300 and looks terrific. (If nothing else, this movie proves that Leonidas's chiselled torso wasn't all CGI.)

Much can be salvaged in a romance if there is chemistry between the stars. But Butler's considerable charm and Swank's wholesome beauty never connect. Of course, it's hard to work up a romance between a dead person and a live person. The Corpse Bride's Tim Burton can do it, but LaGravenese ends up stranded somewhere between eternal love and a slightly creepy form of necrophilia.